London-based multi-instrumentalist, artist, and producer, Sylvie, has quickly turned heads with their poignant lyricism, innovative production, and what would seem to be effortlessly executed vocal gymnastics.
“We should up the dose and keep the girl’s mouth shut, let’s all raise a toast until she’s all fired up,” sings the sharp tongued songwriter on her new single. After being put back onto antidepressant medication, “Dull The Shimmer” describes the numbness Sylvie felt, pointing out the irony of a “happy pill” being a bitter pill to swallow.
Sylvie will debut Particles of Paranoiathis fall, featuring exquisitely layered vocals, ethereal vocoders, and moments that seamlessly blend from chaotic to delicate. The entirely self-written and self-produced EP reflects themes of coming of age, breaking cycles, and portrays unflinchingly honest experiences with mental illness and mental health services that speak to the depth of Sylvie’s artistry.
Based in Toronto, Sunshine Makers are an original R&B/neo-soul/hip-hop band. Their empathetic and warm new song, “Got To Be Good” is a mix of modern and classic, featuring Halifax musician, Aquakultre. Producer Ben Fox and Brent Jackson of Sunshine Makers felt that it gives a nod to the old Motown greats while keeping up with current R&B sounds.
The opening lyrics for “Got To Be Good” starts off by stating “We’ve got to bring some loving here today for our friend Marvin Gaye who’d say what’s going on.”It’s a nod to Marvin Gaye and his message in the classic track “What’s Going On.” Love is what the world needs and Sunshine Makers want to remind people through their music that the message is just as relevant today as it was back in 1971.
“I feel sensitive to the world and often struggle with staying optimistic about our current state,” says Jackson. “I feel comfort and yet sadness to think a person like Marvin experienced feeling the same way 50 years ago. I feel it’s my part as a songwriter to keep pushing a message of love and hope for our planet.”
Sam Casey’s songs detail experiences with toxic relationships, struggles with mental illness, and the relatable feeling of life slipping in and out of control.
The Toronto-based artist teamed up with David Park, Martha and the Muffins, Mike Schlosser, and Alex Exists to deliver her New CompanyEP. Featuring two original songs and remixes of “New Company,” she was inspired by the realization that the fling she had been putting time, energy and real emotion into for months was never going to become a relationship.
Yutao never quite felt complete in his home country of China. He always longed for ideals he felt were embodied by Western culture. When he came to the United States as a student, he tried to stay true to his Eastern culture by fusing it with the Western traditions he was adopting. Slowly, the pair of seemingly very different ideals melded into a personal outlook for Yutao reflected in his delicately gorgeous, electro-pop.
Yutao felt music in his body before he created it. He came up as a break-dancer, but was sidelined for two years after an injury. Upon healing, he realized his moves weren’t as on-point as they were before the injury, and he longed for a fresh creative outlet. During this time, he started hearing and feeling hip-hop, R&B, and EDM in a new way. “The rhythms of this music gave me a rush—like the same sensation I had when I first started breakdancing,” he says.
He recently released his lo-fi bedroom pop single “Sensation.” The song is soft, delicate, and chill. His voice is hypnotic and mystical. When the chorus hits and the beat becomes pronounced, you physically sink into the song. Lyrically, he sings about embracing new love while being fully aware that it won’t last. It swirls and dazzles upon each listen.
Listen here:
“I live and create in a limbo state. Both Eastern and Western perspectives have shaped me, and, while I see the value in both outlooks, I feel a dissonance inside,” Yutao shares. “If I draw a circle between East and West, I live in the center, but, through creating music, I have found a home.”
Alex Mason is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. His songs are dark, anthemic, quiet and dynamic, like dredging up the bones of things that sit at the bottom of lakes. Raised in rural Ontario, he moved to Toronto after completing his degree in English Literature and decided he’d rather put his words in songs than essays.
Whether solo or with his full band, his voice and songs bring a fresh energy and lyricism to Canadian music. After 3 EPs, he is currently preparing his first full length LP, Ghost of the Great Lakes, inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel “To The Lighthouse” and the life lived that has brought him here.
“In mid 2016 not long after having moved to Toronto, I was really struggling in my career and trying to write songs about genuine hope,” said Mason. “I had a conversation with a friend at work about what it meant to overcome failure and she told me that many people pursue something, whether it be a passion or a career, and get to a middle point where they give up, and are doomed to keep finding new fixations and repeating the process, always giving up in this middle period where they plateau.
“It takes working through this ‘desert,’ sitting with the pain, being stranded alone, to come out on the other side. I ran home with words in my head, picked up the guitar and wrote this song almost immediately.”
During the making of “Dark Days” and the rest of the songs for this upcoming record, a big part of the sound of the album involved a delay pedal called the Deluxe Memory Man by Electro-Harmonix. For “Dark Days” in particular, a lot of guitar parts have this analog echo on them, creating an ethereal wash.
The older units in particular are really sought after, as popularized by so many bands such as Radiohead and many others. After losing his Mom mid-way through the recording process for this album, Mason’s old bandmates and producer banded together to purchase one of these units for him and it’s the same sound you hear on the delayed guitar parts in this song. The pedal given to Mason was also used on the record “Suffer Summer” by Chastity, recorded at the same studio.
The critically acclaimed Toronto blues-rock singer Jake Chisholm is back with a love song. “Keep Me Warm” is a sultry strut through the nightlights of love. Sweet and lowdown, cool and confident, it finds it and keeps it. Something is going on and it feels good.
“Keep Me Warm” is about that beautiful, sweet and warm feeling you get when you surrender to love. It’s a wish that the person you give your heart to will honour and repay the love given with love in return.
Sonically, Jake Chisholm and his crew tried to recreate the tingly feelings of anticipation, and the trailing feeling of lasting euphoria after a love connection by using sounds to mimic the layers of emotion rising and falling during these sensual moments.
Modern Mystery 
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